I don't think the update is as bad as people are saying at all. The abilities for the jobs I have are deffinatly welcome. White Mage and Bard both get auspice, something else to do when buffs are up and everyone's cured isn't a bad thing. Plus it raises the utility of the jobs, but it takes away something else of what Red Mage had and no other job did...

As far as the Scholar update goes, I think it's good. We don't know how the dot will affect HNMs, they mentioned something about NM resists I'm sure, but I can't think of where it was or when so no evidence. But it's not been implimented yet so I'd wait before calling it crap. I think raising the 2 hour length is a good thing and the new White Magic spell they got seems pretty cool to me.

Now, this "give other jobs Cure IV" argument is getting annoying. White Mages don't cast Cure VI outside Abyssea, it costs too much MP and it's overkill. If other jobs got Cure V, when the content moves outside Abyssea, White Mage will become a backburner job to the others like it was before. Even now, people seem to forget how much refresh and MP managment armor White Mage has and will always get a Red Mage outside Abyssea when in my experience I can make my MP last easily. If you pull too much hate then work on your enmity build when casting those spells. Cast the enmity down spell on you. You can do 60% more to your cures with Rapture and the +2 head. Scholar does not need Cure V, it was never meant to outnuke Black Mage or outheal White Mage, what would those jobs be if it did?
Really. Do you know how hate mechanics work?

Healing jobs need a healing spell that will not immediately build a ton of emnity. Cure 5 is needed for RDM and SCH for that reason. At least for RDM.

You can do all the tricks and fandoozles you want on scholar. By the time those 15 seconds are up for you to give yourself 6 JA to do a 800 cure 4, i'm dead tanking the thing that's now comming for you.